Environmental Journal: URI scientist sees no evidence that Gulf Stream is slowing down

Richard Salit Journal Staff Writer richsalit

Saturday

Mar 29, 2014 at 9:24 PM

H. Thomas Rossby, a semiretired professor at the URI’s graduate school of oceanography, has been part of an effort to monitor the Gulf Stream for the past 20 years.

If you ever saw the natural disaster movie the “Day After Tomorrow,” with its depiction of climate change sending New York into an instantaneous deep freeze, you might appreciate research that a University of Rhode Island professor has been conducting for decades.

In the movie, the Gulf Stream abruptly shuts down. As the doomed stars discover, that’s a very bad — although exceedingly cinematographic — thing.

The Gulf Stream is part of what scientists call the “Atlantic thermohaline circulation,” which conveys heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic. As the warm surface water cools, it sinks to the ocean floor and then travels southward before returning to the tropics and heating up again.

Some scientists have speculated that a changing climate could lead to warmer ocean temperatures, increased freshwater runoff from glaciers and reduced salinity — all of which could slow the thermohaline circulation and further upset the climate.

H. Thomas Rossby, a semiretired professor at the URI’s graduate school of oceanography, has been part of an effort to monitor the Gulf Stream for the past 20 years. He and his colleagues have measured the Gulf Stream with an “acoustic Doppler current profiler, which is attached to a ship that makes weekly trips across the current from New Jersey to Bermuda. It measures the velocity of the water beneath the ship.

“There are variations of the current over time that are natural — and, yes, we need to understand these better — but we find absolutely no evidence that suggests that the Gulf Stream is slowing down,” says Rossby, countering assertions to the contrary.

A paper based on research conducted by Rossby and his colleagues at Stony Brook University asserts that the Gulf Stream has not slowed. It was recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Help monitor water

It takes people such as you to help monitor water quality in Rhode Island.

Through the University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch program, volunteers visit the state’s ponds and lakes to help measure their health.

On each weekly visit, they check the clarity and temperature of the water. Less frequently, they test for algae concentrations and dissolved oxygen and take samples to be analyzed later for nutrients, acidity and bacteria.

“The water quality information collected by our volunteers is used by conservation organizations, policymakers, regulators and state and local officials to make decisions that improve and protect the health of local waters,” says Linda Green, director of the program. “Beginning this year it is also being used by the Rhode Island Health Department to study the connection between increased water temperatures and the health of Rhode Islanders.”

About 400 people volunteer, but more are needed.

For information, or to register for a training session, contact Elizabeth Herron at (401) 874-4552 or at emh@uri.edu. The program’s website, which includes a list of monitoring sites, is www.uri.edu/ce/wq/ww.

Spot for perfect shot

Talk about a photo op.

Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge is offering a new way for photographers to get great nature shots. The refuge has installed a “photography blind,” a small structure tucked into some shrubs along the edge of salt marsh.

The “blind” provides a way for photographers to remain out of sight of wary wildlife while getting them close enough to the tidal marsh to snap pictures of migratory waterfowl and raptors as well as warm-weather wading and shore birds.

“Photographers will find that the blind is small enough to allow users a secluded feel and opportunity to connect with nature, but large enough to bring along a couple of friends to share this experience with,” according to the refuge, in Middletown.

The blind is available for free, year-round from sunrise to sunset. It’s accessible by hiking from dedicated parking spots along Sachuest Point Road, crossing over a boardwalk and traversing a field. A special-use permit is required to park there and reservations for the blind are required.

For more information, visit the refuge visitor’s center or go to www.fws.gov/refuge/sachuest_point.

Meeting time

Another in a series of Shoreline Change SAMP stakeholder meetings will be held this week.

The subject will be “Adapting to Shoreline Change: Lessons Learned Elsewhere and Thoughts for R.I. Moving Forward.”

The state Coastal Resources Management Council is leading the development of a SAMP (“special area management plan”) to better guide management of the state’s shoreline. Development of the plan began to address issues of beach erosion and sea-level rise and the threats they pose to public infrastructure and private property.

Speakers include John Torgan and Adam Whelchel, of The Nature Conservancy, and Fred Malik, of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.

The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Coastal Institute Auditorium on the Bay Campus of the University of Rhode Island. Reservations are required. For more information, visit www.beachsamp.org.

Student video contest

High school students across Rhode Island are invited to compete in a film contest about the state’s coastline.

The Atlantic Cup is sponsoring the “Ripple Effect Video Contest,” the theme of which is “I live in Rhode Island, the Ocean State.”

Films should be no more than five minutes and address “an issue facing the ocean, bays, inlets, marshes, rivers and creeks that comprise such a large part of Rhode Island.” Winners get to earn a spot as a media crew member aboard an Atlantic Cup race boat when the regatta from Charleston to Newport concludes, May 23-24.

Deadline for submission is April 15. For more information, go to www.atlanticcup.org/atlantic-cup-news/ripple-effect.

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